I should be greatly surprised if the bill will be approved and supported by the parliament members. I have relatives in Ukraine, they say there a lot of bills in the parliament covered with dust. Besides, ukrainian government very rarely adopted laws where they can lost financial gains, only increases taxes.

The State Bank of India is gearing up to implement blockchain solutions in a number of financial processes including the management of its Know Your Customer (KYC) system.

As a public sector bank, government-owned State Bank of India (SBI) is India’s largest banking corporation with assets over $460 billion and services in a number of areas including retail and corporate banking as well as financing and insurance. Earlier in February, SBI took the lead to establish ‘Bankchain’, India’s first financial blockchain consortium comprising of India’s biggest banks (both public and private) alongside technology companies including IBM and Microsoft to develop and implement blockchain applications in the financial services industry.

SBI is now pressing ahead with its first implementation of the decentralized technology by using an enterprise blockchain solution for managing its Know Your Customer (KYC) system, via a new partnership with Intel that sees the technology giant become the consortium’s official technology advisor.

The enterprise blockchain will run on Hyperledger Sawtooth, a modular platform for developing and deploying blockchains, developed by Intel – a member of the open-source Linux Foundation-led Hyperledger project. The blockchain will also be supplemented by Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) to boost the blockchain’s privacy, security and scalability. The blockchain solution will be delivered by Primechain, an Indian blockchain startup powering the Bankchain consortium.

As reported by the Economic Times, the new blockchain solution will boost the efficiency of financial institutions without comprising on data confidentiality and transaction security.

According to SBI’s head of innovation Sudin Baraokar, the public sector bank is keen to develop blockchain use cases through collaborations with other banks to hasten the process of deploying beta platforms.

The SBI official stated:

"By leveraging blockchain components such as Intel SGX and Hyperledger Sawtooth and Primechain’s expertise to build blockchains, we can realize emerging fintech services such as P2P lending, crowdfunding and digital marketplaces that enables financial inclusion."

The consortium’s first completed project, revealed in June, saw a working group of major Indian banks develop a blockchain to share customer data. Dubbed ‘Clear Chain’, participating banks will be able to share KYC, ALM and CFT now Your Customer, Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism) details.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/indias-largest-bank-goes-big-blockchain/

The idea to heat houses with underfloor cryptocurrency heating systems is great. It`s much more useful to mine cryptocurrency in Syberia, than in other warmer regions. Because as i suggest, prefabricated buildings in Irkutsk urban areas has no enough thermal insulation, this city consumes a lot of coal and oil,gas energy, that can be uses both for crypto mining and heating. Great idea.

-Bitcoin has attracted a lot of interest, but it has not achieved the kind of stability a currency should, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian said
-That makes the cryptocurrency more of a commodity than a currency, he added

Bitcoin, despite the large amount of interest it has attracted, has not achieved the kind of stability a currency should possess, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian said, adding that he agrees with the notion that the cryptocurrency is more of a commodity.

"A currency serves as a predictable store of value, and serves as a medium of exchange that's pretty stable in value as well — bitcoins aren't that there yet, they're still trying to find stability so it's more of a commodity than it's a currency," he told CNBC on Thursday during the 2017 Barclays Asia Forum in Singapore.

Last month, El-Erian said bitcoin's value should be half of the $4,000 it was fetching. Since then, the cryptocurrency has surged past $6,000, representing a rally of over 500 percent this year.

Cryptocurrencies in general are getting more attention from government and large organizations, with bitcoin seeing the most debate among commentators and regulators across the world. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a "fraud," while billionaire Peter Thiel said people are "underestimating" it, saying it has "great potential."

Bitcoin recently received a nod from CME, the world's largest futures exchange, which announced this week that it plans to launch bitcoin futures by the end of this year.

But El-Erian remained skeptical. He said those buying into bitcoin may be assuming that it will be widely adopted by institutions and central banks, but they could be wrong.

"My major concern over the long term is: Is the assumption in the pricing about adoption consistent with reality? That's the issue that investors should ask if they're holding bitcoins for a couple of months," he said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/02/allianz-chief-economic-advisor-mohamed-el-erian-on-bitcoin-at-barclays-asia-forum.html

You can count Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam among those who think bitcoin is in a bubble.

At a press conference today, the New York Times reports, the bank chief called bitcoin's anonymity a "challenge," before going on to say:

"From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble."

Criminal use of bitcoin is also a factor that goes against the cryptocurrency, he went on, arguing that banks "have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges."

Thiam joins a growing list of financial industry names who have come out against the digital currency. Last week, billionaire investor Warren Buffett was the most recent to say bitcoin was in a bubble. He echoed Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, who expressed the same sentiment to CNBC in September.

At the time, Dalio noted that the speculation and volatility around bitcoin prevented it, in his eyes, from being an effective store of wealth.

While all over the news currently with its meteoric price gains, Thiam added that he expects interest in bitcoin to subside.

https://www.coindesk.com/credit-suisse-ceo-bitcoin-definition-bubble/

Bitcoin is increasingly becoming a store of value in Zimbabwe as inflation starts to creep up and prices sky-rocket, with investors ditching monetary assets, experts said this week as the price of the crypto-currency skyrocketed.

Zimbabwe is battling foreign currency shortages and this has resulted in a crippling liquidity crisis. Bitcoin has emerged as a popular store of value and the Golix exchange platform for bitcoin in Zimbabwe says it handled bitcoin transactions worth $1 million during the month of October 2017.

Bitcoin prices in Zimbabwe have skyrocketed to $12490 by Thursday morning compared to global averages of about $6000. There is high anticipation that the price of bitcoin will continue to rise in Zimbabwe as more and more people embrace it owing to difficulties in effecting international payments.

“There is inflation setting in in Zimbabwe and bitcoin is an interesting store of value,” Taurai Chinyamakobvu, a tech and blockchain expert in the country, told CCN.

Officials at the Golix trading platform in Zimbabwe say demand for bitcoin has been soaring. The exchange only facilitates trade and officials say sellers of bitcoin in Zimbabwe accept mobile money and bank transfers.

Yeukai Kusangaya who facilitates trade deals at Golix told CCN in an interview this week that “there is more demand than supply” of bitcoins in Zimbabwe at the moment. The demand is spurred by difficulties in effecting international payments. Banks and mobile money platforms have disabled Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards for international payments and this has left many people in Zimbabwe stranded.

“Bitcoin can be used to pay for vehicle imports and to purchase goods on e-commerce sites such as Amazon,” said Kusangaya.

Other experts in Zimbabwe say bitcoin, although susceptible to volatility, is a safer bet in terms of investment. Others even tout it as safer than gold in terms of value appreciation. But there are worries over lack of regulation by governments although some jurisdictions may be moving to regulate bitcoin trade.

“There is no owner or controlling body for bitcoin. Every transaction done online is visible to all traders in bitcoin,” Pardon Gatsi, a tech expert based in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, told CCN.

Banks in Zimbabwe frequently run out of notes and coins and the introduction of bitcoin has been some solution amid reports that some companies are now embracing bitcoin for payments for software among other goods and services.

Traders and those seeking to effect international payments will be hoping that bitcoin price remains high and that the central bank or other government authorities do not move in to regulate the crypto-currency.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/zimbabwean-exchanges-monthly-bitcoin-volume-hits-1-million/

 Hello manager. I joined to signature bounty. Added Crypterium Avatar, signature and a personal message.

With roughly fifteen days left bitcoin-based businesses all around the world have been preparing their users for the possible hardfork expected to take place on or around November 16. Now the world’s largest bitcoin merchant service provider, Bitpay, has revealed its contingency plans for the upcoming Segwit2x hard fork.


The Atlanta-based company Bitpay has announced its plans for operations during and after the hard fork scheduled to occur at block height 494784. The firm says the company’s top priority is the safety and security of its users. With this in mind during some protocol upgrades, Bitpay says it “must take precautions to protect our users.” Bitpay details that while a good majority of miners and businesses support Segwit2x, it understands that not everyone is supporting a hard fork.     

“While most miners signaled their support of this protocol change, not all support it. If miners are divided over this change, there is a significant risk of a chain split,” explains Bitpay. 

"If that occurs, Bitpay’s services will follow the chain with the most accumulated difficulty."

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitpay-to-suspend-all-services-during-the-segwit2x-hard-fork/

Riding a wave of record prices, and the growth in businesses created to service the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Bitcoin as a network and bitcoin as a currency are quickly becoming international job creators. According to popular employment-finding websites, last quarter alone saw a jump in related work offers.

Bitcoin-Related Jobs Fastest Growing Category of International Employment

Annie Lin of CNBC writes “Bitcoin-related jobs are the fastest growing category of role on international employment marketplace [website] Freelancer.” In fact, data shows an “82 percent growth in the third quarter,” Ms. Lin continues, with “work related to cryptocurrency” an upward trend, citing the “company’s periodic report, [which] tracks top trends in online jobs based on the listings on its Freelancer.com platform.”

The Australian-based company claims to be “the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace,” connecting “over 25,986,955 employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories,” according to its website.

In an recent company Fast 50 Report, Freelancer noted “China’s ​banning ​of ​[initial coin offerings] hasn’t ​stopped ​cryptocurrency ​bitcoin ​and ​Cryptography ​emerging ​as ​hot ​trends ​to ​watch ​for next ​quarter.” ​

Under the report’s sub-heading, One to watch, the company details how “Bitcoin ​topped ​the Freelancer.com ​Fast ​50 ​Report’s ​emerging ​skills ​in ​the ​third ​quarter ​of ​2017, ​up 82% ​in ​the ​last ​three ​months ​alone. ​Cryptography ​is ​also ​up ​59%, ​as ​reports ​of ​the ​digital ​gold rush ​continue ​to ​flood ​in.”

“Our ​global ​community ​has expertise ​across ​over ​1,000 ​areas, ​so ​if ​you ​are ​living ​in ​Poland ​but ​would ​like ​help with ​setting ​up ​your ​ICO, ​then ​we ​give ​entrepreneurs ​a ​place ​to ​turn,” remarked company CEO Matt Barrie.

The report continues with a market round-up, stressing how cryptocurrencies “​have ​soared ​in ​recent ​months, ​bitcoin ​passing ​USD$6,000 ​mark ​at ​the ​time ​of releasing ​this ​Fast ​50 ​Report. ​But ​it’s ​not ​just ​mining ​and ​rigging ​jobs ​that ​are ​being ​posted,” they write.

“Recent ​projects ​include ​an ​opportunity ​for designs ​for ​an ​Initial ​Coin ​Offering,” Freelancer reveals, “a ​CTO ​with ​Bitcoin ​knowledge, creating ​new ​altcoin ​currencies, blockchain ​whitepapers, cryptocurrency ​content ​writers, help ​with ​a ​gambling ​blockchain.”

Emphasizing the international flavor of bitcoin-related job growth, the report also notes support “​for ​the ​trend ​is ​coming ​from ​the ​highest ​places ​in ​traditional ​finance, ​with ​the ​IMF’s ​chief Christine ​Lagarde ​recently ​devoting ​a ​third ​of ​her ​speech ​to ​the ​potential ​of cryptocurrencies when ​addressing ​the ​world’s ​bankers.”

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-related-jobs-fastest-growing-sector-international-employment/

FPT, a private Vietnamese university is planning to accept tuition fees in bitcoin with a workaround of the central bank’s ban on using cryptocurrencies as payment instruments.

FPT University is a private academic institution with campuses in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, Vietnam’s three major cities. The university will soon begin accepting bitcoin for tuition payments from foreign students, according to FPT University President Dr. Le Truong Tung who shared the announcement on his Facebook page. With bitcoin, Tung believes foreign students can circumvent strict currency controls in their respective countries.

Dr. Tung stated:

    "Therefore, FPT decided to test by officially and concretely announcing the enrollment of foreign students to study in Vietnam made possible by using bitcoin as a means to pay tuition fees, [which would also] attract foreign students."

According to the school official, the university is looking to research cryptocurrencies like bitcoin within its curriculum, specifically in finance, business management, and banking. The intended acceptance of bitcoin and usage of cryptocurrency for research among its courses is a pioneering move for FPT, making it the first Vietnamese university to do so. As such, there are 100 foreign students enrolled at the university, a meager 1% of the total student body. Tung expects bitcoin to help bolster those numbers as the university finds a way to accept the cryptocurrency despite recent legal frameworks by the central bank that prohibits bitcoin as a legal method of payment.

To do so, foreign students would be required to exchange bitcoin into Vietnamese dong, the country’s fiat currency, before paying the tuition fees. Alternatively, students will also be allowed to ‘donate’ their bitcoin to a bitcoin address or wallet owned by the university, where the cryptocurrency will be changed into legal currencies to fund their ‘scholarships.’

Dr. Tung added:

    "In principle, FPT can open a bitcoin account for students to transfer the bitcoin to the school online…Later on, when specific regulations are implemented officially, both foreign and Vietnamese students can use [pay with] bitcoin."

Yesterday, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the country’s central bank, clarified its position to confirm “Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are not lawful means of payment in Vietnam,” before effectively prohibiting the “issuance, supply [and] use of bitcoin.” The authority also said that using bitcoin as a means of payment will incur fines between VND 150 million – 200 million [approx. $9,000] and could also extend to criminal prosecution.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/vietnamese-university-plans-bitcoin-tuition-fees-despite-central-bank-ban/

The number of hedge funds which exclusively trade digital currencies has grown to 120, with about $2.3 bln in total assets under management, according to the financial research firm Autonomous Next.

While it sounds like a large number, it pales in comparison to the $3.15 tln managed by the hedge fund industry in the third quarter.

Cryptocurrencies have attracted only a small number of institutional investors because most still remain skeptical. The latest criticism comes from legendary investor Warren Buffet, who has said that Bitcoin is in bubble territory.

Well, a correction after such a stupendous rally is certainly possible. Therefore, we always recommend a stop loss to our readers. Even if the digital currencies correct sharply, our losses will be limited and our capital will be preserved. We can again reinvest at lower levels.

BTC/USD

We had recommended long positions in Bitcoin in our previous analysis, with our target objective being $6000. On Oct. 27, the digital currency hit a high of $5986, where hopefully traders would have booked partial profits as suggested. Where is Bitcoin headed next? 



Bitcoin is currently correcting towards the trendline support at $5600. Just below this support is the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $5513. We expect buying to emerge at these levels, however, we are not certain that this level will hold this time.

Our stops at $5650 have been hit. We would like to sit back and wait, because if the support zone of $5513 to $5600 breaks, the digital currency will slide to $4975 levels.

On the other hand, if the support zone holds then Bitcoin is likely to remain range-bound between $5600 to $6000. However, the next buy on the virtual currency will only be triggered if it breaks out to new highs and crosses the resistance line of the ascending channel.

Presently, we don’t find any buy setups, therefore, we don’t not recommend any fresh trade on Bitcoin.

ETH/USD

We don’t have any existing positions or recommendations on Ethereum. The bulls and the bears are taking a break after the hugely volatile day on Oct. 22.



Ethereum has a slew of resistances from $300 to $315 levels. Therefore we recommend a long position only on a breakout, and close above $315 with a close stop loss. The first target is $353.

On the downside, it has support from the trendline at $280, below which it is likely to fall to $272 and thereafter to $252 levels.

At current levels we don’t find any buy setups on Ethereum, hence we do not suggest to trade on it.

https://www.cointelegraph.com/news/price-analysis-october-28-bitcoin-ethereum-bitcoin-cash-ripple-litecoin

Основатель GatCoin Simon вчера выступал в Корее Сеул с докладом о Гат Коин. Пресейл уже завтра. Кто разумеет английский, можно посмотреть инфо о проекте. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYPMkiziFc

National Bank of Kazakhstan Proposes to Restrict the Exchange and Mining of Cryptocurrencies

The central bank of Kazakhstan has submitted proposals to its government to restrict some cryptocurrency-related activities. However, the bank’s chairman admitted that he does not fully understand what cryptocurrency is. Experts also weighed in on the reality of banning crypto mining in the country.


The National Bank of Kazakhstan has proposed restricting some activities relating to cryptocurrency in the country, Ria Novosti reported. The central bank’s chairman, Daniyar Akishev, said at a press conference in Astana on Wednesday that this is “to protect the public from speculative risks,” the publication conveyed.

“The high volatility of the prices of the cryptocurrencies in the short term gives the owner the opportunity to make money on speculative transactions,” Akishev was quoted saying. “But in the future [it] may lead to significant damage from the loss of funds by citizens.” He revealed:

        
https://news.bitcoin.com/national-bank-of-kazakhstan-restrict-exchange-mining-cryptocurrencies/

After a week long slump, the bitcoin price has recovered to $5,780. The launch of Bitcoin Gold, which has not met the expectations of traders, likely fueled investors to reallocate their funds back into bitcoin.

As Cryptocoinsnews previously reported, the execution of the Bitcoin Gold hard fork likely led bitcoin investors to initiate a short-term sell off, to distribute their funds across other alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) like Ethereum and Litecoin to avoid the Bitcoin Gold hard fork.

Earlier this week, the development team of Bittrex, the third largest cryptocurrency by trading volume behind Bitfinex and Bithumb, revealed that the codebase of Bitcoin Gold is incomplete, untested, and unaudited. Hence, the Bittrex development team stated that exchanges and wallet platforms will not be able to credit users with Bitcoin Gold unless strong replay protection is implemented.

“At this time, the information and codebase presented by the Bitcoin Gold team is not in a functional state and Bittrex will not commit to opening a Bitcoin Gold trading market,” said the Bittrex team.

More importantly, Bittrex emphasized that crediting investors with Bitcoin Gold at this phase of development would endanger existing bitcoins, which could lead to larger problems in the short-term. The Bittrex team explained:

“When considering adding tokens to Bittrex exchange we look at the risks involved. Bitcoin Gold does not satisfy our criteria for safety for our users. Taking a snapshot of the Bittrex exchange Bitcoin wallet is also a large disruptive undertaking that requires over 24 hours of preparation (Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals are also suspended during this time) and should not be taken lightly.”

The majority of investors likely did not want to deal with the Bitcoin Gold hard fork because of these circumstances, surrounding the lack of replay protection and the warnings exchanges such as Bittrex have offered in regards to the security and preparation of the Bitcoin Gold codebase.

Consequently, in the past four days, the price of bitcoin remained below the $5,500 mark, even dipping below the $5,300 region at one point.

Where Does Bitcoin Price Go From Here?

Analysts including prominent bitcoin investor Tuur Demeester stated that a similar trend can be expected prior to the SegWit2x hard fork on November 16. In the mid-term, the SegWIt2x hard fork, if it is pursued as planned, could negatively affect the price of bitcoin, possibly at a larger magnitude than Bitcoin Gold.

But, in terms of volatility, liquidity, regulations and demand from institutional investors, bitcoin is at an optimal position to lead another rally. Already, some of the strictly regulated bitcoin options, futures, and derivatives exchanges like LedgerX have started to record substantially high trading volumes. Billionaire investors including Mike Novogratz have also revealed that a “herd of institutional investors” are entering the cryptocurrency market.

In the upcoming weeks, at least until the hard fork period of SegWit2x, investors could expect a strong rally from bitcoin, once the $6,000 is broken in the short-term.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-recovers-5780-week-long-slump/

Bitcoin Poses no Risks to Warrant Regulation: Singapore Central Bank Chief

Singapore has no plans of regulating cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and the central bank will keep “an open mind”, the authority’s chief has revealed.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank and financial regulator, will not regulate cryptocurrencies but will “expect” intermediaries to implement anti-money laundering controls, according to MAS managing director Ravi Menon.

Speaking an interview with Bloomberg, the central banker was asked if cryptocurrencies like bitcoin require regulation if Singapore became hotbed for ICOs, a popular new form of fundraising enabled by cryptocurrencies.

In response, Menon said “very few jurisdictions regulate cryptocurrencies” before revealing the authority’s take on exerting control, if any.

He stated:

   " We’ve taken the approach that the currency itself does not pose the risk that warrants regulation. Our approach is to look at the activity around the cryptocurrency and then make an assessment of what regulation would be suitable."

As an example, Menon pointed to the expectation upon an intermediary dealing with cryptocurrencies, like a bitcoin exchange or trading platform, to establish anti-money laundering controls.

Refreshingly, the central banker went against the usual narrative of an authority undermining cryptocurrencies, by stating:

    "It is a known fact that cryptocurrencies are quite often abused for illicit financing purposes, so we do want to have AML/CFT controls in place. So those requirements apply to the activity around cryptocurrency, rather than the cryptocurrency itself."

Menon also expressed noteworthy comments for a central banker when he was asked to offer his views on the advent of cryptocurrencies into societies. Bitcoin has captured the mainstream’s attention this year, growing from $1,000 at the turn of 2017 to a recent all-time high near $6,200. The official pointed to the “hype” surrounding the value gains as a misguided approach to tapping into cryptocurrencies’ potential beyond a store of value.

He stated:

    "People see it merely as an investment vehicle that’s going to rise in value. I think that’s a rather misguided approach to the use of cryptocurrencies. They can have potentially good applications in particular use cases…the cryptocurrency value isn’t important, it is the application in which they are used."

‘Can they make cross-border inter-banking payments cheaper, faster and more efficient for migrant workers to send money back to their villages?” Menon asked, raising the question for the wider application of cryptocurrencies.

He went on to add:

    "If it [cross-border remittance] was going through a blockchain using cryptocurrencies, it could yield benefits. That ought to be the question, rather than whether bitcoins or ether are going up in value or not."

One of the early adopters of blockchain technology among central banks globally, the MAS is heavily invested in testing and developing its own digital currency under the ‘Project Ubin’ banner – an initiative by the central bank to develop and deploy digitized Singaporean dollars on a blockchain. The MAS issued digital tokens of the Singaporean dollar over a private Ethereum blockchain in a trial earlier this year.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/singapore-wont-regulate-cryptocurrencies-central-bank-chief/

A surge in demand for digital currency in Zimbabwe has highlighted an interesting quirk in the trading of bitcoin, as well as the current economic woes the African country is facing.

"Zimbabwe panic sends bitcoin soaring over $6,000?" asked a report on one cryptocurrency website over the weekend. While the answer is clearly no — there's not enough trade in Zimbabwe to impact the price — it does hint at two issues.

Firstly, Zimbabwe appears to be facing some serious currency concerns again.

After the hyperinflation of 2008, the country adopted the U.S. dollar as its own. But a scarcity of greenbacks means a crisp new $100 bill can reportedly trade at a premium and is worth more than the digital dollars that people have in their bank accounts. They're also trading at a higher price to the Zimbabwe "bond notes" that the government recently introduced. These are a domestic quasi-currency that looked to solve the lack of U.S. dollars in the country.

Now there's a "debilitating liquidity crunch and an acute cash shortage," according to the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper Friday, which has "severely crippled companies which need to import critical inputs for operations."

The Middle East's The National newspaper summed it up the other day: "This time (in Zimbabwe) the issue is not too much money — it is that there is too little. Because the reserve bank cannot print U.S. dollars itself — the U.S. alone can do that — it must rely on imported cash."

With concerns over currency, it's no surprise that the stock market is at record highs with people seeking any sort of haven. It's also no surprise that bitcoin is trading at a near $400 premium in the country. At local exchange Golix it was trading at $9,899 over the weekend. Golix has itself posted a blog on how capital controls and restrictions in the country are causing people to flock to bitcoin.

Nonetheless, this big price difference for bitcoin also highlights the second issue. Different jurisdictions having different currency rules will mean some price quirks. The knock-on effect? It will allow arbitrage trading — exploiting price differences between similar financial instruments. And with various countries around the world looking at state control for bitcoin, such as charging taxes on it, I'd expect more of these price peculiarities to appear.

Only the nimble will reap the rewards. But remember the usual caveats, bitcoin has its critics and is prone to some seriously volatile trading.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/24/why-everyones-talking-about-bitcoin-and-zimbabwe.html

Governments across the world are using technology and banks to keep an eye on their citizens. Decentralized currencies like Bitcoin may be the only way out for people who want to maintain their privacy.

Europe and MiFid

The European Union's Market in Financial Instruments Directives (MiFiD) are set to be implemented from January 2018. Customers who transact in securities will now have to provide their passport numbers to every platform they register on.

Exchanges are transitioning to MiFiD-ready platforms and have started collection of data. If you do not provide your passport number and other personal data, exchanges may block your transactions. As far as Know-Your-Customer norms are concerned, no data is considered private.

US tracks citizens worldwide

The US, through the enactment of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), tracks the accounts of its citizens worldwide. US citizens, whether resident or not, have information such as their social security numbers and total assets collected by banks and submitted to the IRS. The US government twists the arms of foreign banks to ensure compliance. This is done by threatening non-compliant banks with a withholding penalty on their US transactions.

The IRS is even trying to use tools like Chainalysis to track down Bitcoin transactions. There is no escaping the long arm of Uncle Sam, except by renouncing your citizenship, which some wealthy Americans have done.

India and Aadhar

The Government of India seems to be pushing forward with its aim to make Aadhar ubiquitous. The Aadhar card, which involves the collection of biometrics like fingerprints and iris scans, has been made compulsory for everything from receiving subsidies to filing income tax returns. In its new push, the government has also ordered the linking of bank accounts and mobile numbers to your unique Aadhar number.

Its motto is one billion, one billion, one billion - a billion bank accounts linked to a billion mobile numbers linked to a billion Aadhar numbers. Privacy? Forget about it, especially when it comes to money. Demonetization is not the only assault by the Indian government on people's' rights.

Nothing to hide?

The attitude of governments when questioned about the need for citizens' privacy is that only criminals need to hide things from the government. Various organizations have taken the issue of privacy to courts and are fighting a battle to safeguard the rights of citizens, but governments are nonetheless chipping away at citizens' privacy. Thankfully, Bitcoin is founded on the core premise that transactions cannot be censored in any way. If Alice wants to send some of her Bitcoins to Bob, she will be able to do that irrespective of what the government thinks and wants her to do.

Could you please tell, what was the ICO price for Zonto Token? If i see Zonto transaction in my wallet, i have the right to change signature? Thank you for your distribution.

Bitcoin set a new record high on Saturday breaking through the $6,100 barrier.

The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $6,147.07 just a day after pushing through the $6,000 mark, according to data from industry website CoinDesk.

Much of the rise can be attributed to another upcoming split in bitcoin known as a "fork". This will lead to the creation of a new cryptocurrency called bitcoin gold. Holders of bitcoin will get some bitcoin gold when it is issued, essentially giving them free money.

But Alex Sunnarborg, founding partner of cryptocurrency fund Tetras Capital, told CNBC on Friday that bitcoin investors were betting on bitcoin holding its status despite the split. Bitcoin already underwent a fork in August when a new cryptocurrency called bitcoin cash was created. Despite this, bitcoin has continued to perform strongly.

At the same time, there are rumors that China could reverse its ban on cryptocurrency exchanges which is also giving bitcoin a boost.

Bullishness around bitcoin continues despite big business figures like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling it a "fraud" and saying that people who invest in it are "stupid".

In an unscientific survey carried out by CNBC this week, nearly half of the more than 23,000 people who voted said bitcoin is heading to over $10,000. Former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz told CNBC in a recent interview that he sees bitcoin heading to $10,000 in the next six to 10 months.

Bitcoin has also been helped by favorable regulation in Japan which recently allowed companies to accept the digital currency as payment. Around 57 percent of the trade in bitcoin was executed in Japanese yen on Saturday, according to industry website CryptoCompare.

But the virtual currency has also suffered regulatory setbacks including China banning cryptocurrency exchanges.

Still, the price of bitcoin has risen over 500 percent year-to-date.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/21/bitcoin-price-6100-new-record-high.html

Earlier today, on October 20, the Bitcoin price slightly declined from $5,720 to $5,650. But, within the past 48 hours, the Bitcoin price has surged significantly, as the market gained confidence over Bitcoin’s mid-term rally.



On October 18, the Bitcoin price plunged from above $5,500 to $5,120, as the entire cryptocurrency market endured a major correction. Cryptocoinsnews previously reported that leading cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Ripple have fallen by around 10 percent within 24-hour period.



Traders are Buying the Dip

Prominent Bitcoin traders and investors including Tuur Demeester revealed that they have bought “the dip” as the Bitcoin price plunged below $5,120 in a single day, from over $5,500. It is highly likely that many traders were expecting the price of Bitcoin to correct itself after a strong two-week long rally, which has led to a surge in the Bitcoin price from $4,500 to $5,920.

Quite often, prior to hard forks, the Bitcoin price tends to be highly volatile, as the community and the market decide to support one blockchain over the other. While arguments that SegWit2x supporters and investors are investing in Bitcoin to obtain SegWit2x coin or B2X in November and thus pushing the bitcoin price up are valid, it is more likely that the support over Bitcoin’s mid-term growth is allowing the market to sustain an upward momentum and trend.

More to that, if the market had been concerned in regards to Bitcoin’s performance subsequent to the SegWit2x hard fork in November, the vast majority of traders would have invested in alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) rather than Bitcoin. However, that evidently has not been case as the Bitcoin dominance index has increased to 55.9 percent, the highest point since early May.


The SegWit2x hard fork, if it will be pursued as planned, is expected to be activated in mid October. Which means, in less than three weeks, another fork of Bitcoin will emerge, apart from Bitcoin Cash.

Several Bitcoin companies and wallet platforms such as Xapo and Blockchain have took a rather controversial approach in addressing the fork, notifying the Bitcoin community that the Bitcoin blockchain will be listed as the minority chain or (BC1) if it has lower hashrate than Bitcoin. But, as Alistair Milne explained in an analytical blog post, miners tend to follow the money and the more profitable blockchain.

“Miners follow the money, they do not lead the money. This has never been illustrated more clearly than by Bcash and the joke that is their difficulty adjustment algo. A rational miner fears the market negatively valuing the tokens they are trying to mine. They are extremely sensitive to profit & loss (no matter how rich they pretend to be),” said Milne.

As seen in Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin miners had previously moved to the Bitcoin Cash blockcahin network prior to its difficulty adjustment, which allowed Bitcoin Cash to have significant hash power. Almost immediately after Bitcoin Cash became less profitable to mine than Bitcoin, most miners switched back to Bitcoin, including Bitmain and Antpool.

Hence, if companies like Xapo and Blockchain decide to list Bitcoin as a minority chain based on hash rate, which as Milne mentioned is not a practical and accurate way of justifying the majority chain, it could impact the mid-term performance of the Bitcoin price in a negative way.

Still, based on the recent rally of Bitcoin, it is evident that the community and the market are confident that Bitcoin will remain as the majority chain after the fork, which is a positive indicator for the Bitcoin price.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dropping-5120-bitcoin-price-surges-5650/